We Work With Weird
by voxinatwitch
Summary: When an accident with an artifact has unintended consequences, Claudia finds herself in new territory.
1. Chapter 1

"Aw, man!" Claudia exclaimed, making a face as the glass vessel fell from the shelf, shattering, her lunge to grab it mere instants too late.

A moment of eerie silence lulled her into complacency. Whew, that was close, she thought.

Then an explosion ripped through the air, wind whipping past her hair. Darkness, punctuated with blinding flashes of lights swirled in her vision. She covered her face with her arms as a sensation of acceleration jolted her body.

She felt something skid underneath her, friction burning through her jeans, the scratch of something gritty beneath her body. She peeled her eyes open, choking on dust that billowed in dazzling rays of sunlight that filtered down.

"Hey!" A voice shouted, accompanied by pounding footsteps.

"Wow, that was gnarly," Claudia muttered to herself, standing from where she had come to lie on the ground. As her eyes adjusted, she saw she was outdoors, in some sort of park—with a woman running toward her.

"I saw the flash! How did you get here?"

"Not exactly sure."

"What do you mean, you're not sure? You just like, friggin teleported here."

"No, I've teleported before. This wasn't quite like that."

"You've teleported before. What are you, some kind of Wessen?" The other woman reached surreptitiously into her jacket.

"A what? I've seen of a lot of crazy stuff, but not of anything called 'vessa'."

The woman suddenly jumped forwards, something metallic flashing in her hand.

"Whoah! What are you doing?" Claudia skittered backwards, alarm filling her voice.

"OK, you're definitely not a Wessen." The woman shook her head with a relieved look, putting away what Claudia could now see was a large knife.

"What are you talking about?"

"It's complicated. Sorry about that. I had to make sure. Weird stuff usually doesn't mean anything good for people like me."

"People like you? What kind of weird? I work with weird, so maybe I can help."

"You work with weird? Are you a Grimm?"

"A what? No. I work for, well, I can't really tell you. But I'm kind of like a real-life Agent Mulder."

"Really?"

"Yeah, look." Claudia pulled out her badge.

"Secret Service? So why would a Secret Service agent teleport out here?"

"Nope, wasn't teleportation. This was something different. By the way, where is 'here', exactly?"

"Portland."

"Holy interdimensional travel, Batman! That's a long way from South Dakota!"

"You just got here from South Dakota?"

"Yeah, I'm about as confused as you are. I need to call my boss."

"Lemme guess, he's in South Dakota."

"I hope so. I hope it didn't them too."

"Them being?"

"My coworkers. Never know with the stuff we deal with, just what will happen."

Claudia pulled out her Farnsworth, earning a strange look from her companion.

"What is that?"

"A really old version of FaceTime."

"What, your agency can't afford smartphones?"

"No, this is just more reliable."

"Really?"

"Yeah." Claudia replied, thumbing the dials. She only met static.

"Looks like stone age FaceTime isn't so great after all."

"No, something's not right. They never fail."

"Why don't you try a real phone?"

"I don't have mine. I left it in the office." Claudia sighed.

"Fine. Use mine."

"Thanks. By the way, I didn't get your name."

"Folks call me Trubel."

"Trubel? Good to meet ya. I"m Claudia."


	2. Chapter 2

"Trubel? Good to meet ya. I"m Claudia."

Claudia punched in the number to Artie's cell.

Instead of ringing, an electronic voice came on the line, saying "I'm sorry, the number you've dialed is not in service. Please check the number and try your call again."

"OoohKay," Claudia said, making a face.

"No luck?" Trubel asked.

"No, no luck. I'm gonna try someone else."

She entered Steve's number.

"Hello?" A woman's voice answered.

"Hey, who's this? I need to talk to Steve."

"This is Monica. No Steve here." The woman on the other end hung up.

"No, no, that can't be," Claudia shook her head.

"What's going on?"

"It's just—" she punched in Pete's number. "—this isn't possible."

Trubel smirked. "There's plenty of that around."

"Don't I know it." As if this isn't weird enough….

She scoffed as another automated error signal played.

"Sure you're dialing right?"

'Yeah, just one more."

Myka's number…someone had to answer…

It rang once, then popped to voicemail. She groaned as the recording played. "Hey, it's Johanathan, leave me a message."

"No, no, no!" Claudia grimaced, punctuating her words by clawing the air with her free hand.

"So hat's going on?"

"It looks like my coworkers don't have the same numbers here. Wherever, uh, here, is."

"Portland."

"Yeah, yeah, but like, this….world."

"This world?"

"Yeah, I think, maybe I'm in, a parallel….parallel universe."

"Well, I think you should come with me."

"No, I really—"

"Look, it's gonna be dark soon, and besides, I know somebody who might be able to help."

"Really?"

"Yeah. You're not the only one that deals with weird, Agent Mulder."

"So what would you be, then? If you deal with weird."

"Uh…kind of…like…a vampire slayer, I guess."

Claudia laughed. "Seriously? How long has that been going on?"

"Longer than I want to remember."


End file.
